Because of serious concerns relating to pollution and/or contamination of fluids that can eventually become part of the water supply of a community, it has become very important for the safety of the people in the community to be able to test flowing fluids including air to constantly check the contamination levels of the fluids.
Very often, industrial plants are located in or near a region that contains a lot of people who are dependent upon a supply of water from or near their region for drinking purposes. In some situations, the supply of water is from one or more wells that are used to extract water from a water table located beneath the surface of the land. In other situations, the supply of water is from a source of water such as a lake that is within or near the region of people.
For example, Lake Mead in Nevada is near the city of Las Vegas, Nev. and the water from Lake Mead is used as a primary source of water supply for the city of Las Vegas and surrounding areas. In this specific situation of Lake Mead, the water supply in this lake which is crucial for the people of the city of Las Vegas and surrounding areas is, unfortunately, the location where various effluent fluid discharges are directed due to the need to carry away these fluid discharges to be dumped into some large body of water.
Consequently, sewer lines from residential areas will carry effluent fluid discharges from residents to Lake Mead after passing through a treatment plant. Also, sewer lines passing through or near industrial plants or sites that discharge potentially toxic chemical fluids into their sewer lines can create a very serious water contamination problem to the water supply provided by Lake Mead. Therefore, these sewer lines passing through or near the industrial plants or sites need to be very carefully monitored in order to determine if effluent carried by these sewer lines are carrying toxic chemical fluids that can provide a serious source of contamination to the water supply of Lake Mead.
Various techniques have been developed to monitor the effluent fluids carried by the sewer lines passing in or through the industrial plants or sites. After various attempts using different techniques, it has been determined that an optimum effluent fluid testing or sampling procedure is to lower a fluid sampling device underneath a manhole cover of a sewer line in order to provide a way of obtaining fluid samples from the effluent stream.
Unfortunately, prior attempts at suspending a fluid sampling device underneath a manhole cover have not been very successful because of the instability of the apparatus used to suspend the fluid sampling device beneath the manhole cover. For safety reasons, the manhole cover needs to be kept on the hole or opening in the street where the manhole cover is located. Thus, vehicles such as cars, trucks, etc. whose wheels may go directly on the top surface of the manhole cover, can create impact forces on the manhole cover or create vibrations thereto which can cause fluid sampling attachment mechanisms located beneath the manhole cover to collapse thereby causing the loss of the attachment mechanisms and the fluid sampling devices connected thereto.
As a result, a need existed for an improved apparatus and method for supporting a fluid sampling device in an opening below a manhole cover which would be reliable, stable and have a positive force connection or attachment to withstand contact to or vibrations of the manhole cover and to also permit quick and easy adjustment to various size openings in the ground beneath the manhole cover and corresponding various sizes of the manhole cover.